System and method for diagnosing home appliance

• US 8,346,508 B2
• Filed: 04/09/2010
• Issued: 01/01/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 04/10/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: LG Electronics, Inc. (LG Corporation)
• Original Assignee: LG Electronics, Inc. (LG Corporation)
• Inventors: Kim, Hyun Sang, Kwon, Eui Hyeok, Kang, Hae Yong, Kim, Yong Tae, Lee, Koon Seok
• Primary Examiner(s): Nghiem, Michael
• Assistant Examiner(s): Satanovsky, Alexander
• Application Number:
  US12/757,205
• Publication Number:
  US 20100318324A1
• Time in Patent Office: 998 Days
• Field of Search: 702/183, 379/93.29, 379/106, 379/108, 340/679
• US Class Current: 702/183
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/2825 Reporting to a device located outside the home and the home network access arrangements H04L12/2856; for remote control or remote monitoring of applications H04L67/025; telephonic communication systems adapted for combination with telemetering systems H04M11/002
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 2012/285 Generic home appliances, e.g. refrigerators
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0631 using root cause analysis; using analysis of correlation between notifications, alarms or events based on decision criteria, e.g. hierarchy, tree or time analysis
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 11/002 with telemetering systems telemetering in general G08C

Abstract

A system and method for diagnosing a home appliance are disclosed. The home appliance outputs product information as a predetermined sound signal, and transmits the sound signal to a service center of a remote site over a communication network, such that a service technician of the service center can easily check a current status of the home appliance. When a diagnostic server of the service center analyzes the sound signal of the home appliance, it selects a plurality of preamble candidates and can effectively and correctly detect data using weights, so that it can quickly diagnose a faulty operation of the home appliance. An erroneous data analysis and its associated erroneous diagnosis are prevented, so that the diagnostic system provides a service for more correctly diagnosing a faulty operation of the home appliance and also increases user satisfaction and reliability of the home appliance.

Claims

1. A diagnostic system for a home appliance, comprising:

at least one home appliance that outputs a sound signal including product information; and

a diagnostic server that receives the sound signal from the home appliance and diagnoses a faulty operation of the home appliance using the received sound signal, wherein the diagnostic server extracts a plurality of preamble candidates from the sound signal, detects a preamble for identifying the product information from the plurality of preamble candidates, extracts product information contained in the sound signal, and thus diagnoses a current status of the home appliance, a faulty operation, and a cause of the faulty operation, wherein the diagnostic server includes;

a signal detector that performs matching and weighting processes between the plurality of preamble candidates so as to detect the preamble from the plurality of preamble candidates, and extracts the product information using the preamble; and

a diagnostic device that diagnoses a current status of the home appliance, a faulty operation, and a cause of the faulty operation by analyzing the product information, wherein the signal detector extracts a first plurality of preamble candidates of a first time to form a first preamble candidate group, extracts a second plurality of preamble candidates of a second time according to not only data including the product information but also a preamble size to form a second preamble candidate group, and matches each preamble candidate of the first preamble candidate group to each preamble candidate of the second preamble candidate group on a one to one basis.

2. The diagnostic system according to claim 1, wherein the signal detector assigns a weight value to a matched bit caused by the one-to-one matching result, and sets a preamble candidate having a high sum of weight values of individual bits to the preamble.

3. The diagnostic system according to claim 1, wherein the signal detector, in response to a predetermined preamble size and a predetermined data size, detects the product information according to the predetermined data size starting from an end part of the preamble.

4. The diagnostic system according to claim 3, wherein the predetermined preamble size and predetermined data size are stored in a data device.

5. The diagnostic system according to claim 1, wherein the home appliance includes:

a controller that, upon receiving a signal output command, divides the product information into a plurality of data units, inserts the preamble between the divided data units, generates a digital signal of a predetermined format, and generates a signal to output the sound signal;

a converter that converts the digital signal into a modulated signal having a predetermined frequency band; and

a sound output device that outputs the modulated signal as a sound signal in response to the digital signal output by the controller.

9. The diagnostic system according to claim 1, wherein the diagnostic device collects data detected by the signal detector for each of the first time and second time, analyzes the collected data, and diagnoses a malfunction or fault operation of the home appliance using the data.

10. The diagnostic system according to claim 1, wherein the matching and weighting processes are carried out until all data needed for diagnosis is collected.

11. The diagnostic system according to claim 1, wherein the diagnostic server converts the sound signal into bitstream data and the signal detector extracts the plurality of preamble candidates from the bitstream data.

6. A diagnostic method for use in a diagnostic system of a home appliance, the diagnostic method comprising:

upon receiving in a diagnostic server a sound signal from a home appliance, extracting a plurality of preamble candidates from the sound signal;

detecting via the diagnostic server a preamble from the plurality of preamble candidates by performing matching and weighting processes between the plurality of preamble candidates;

detecting via the diagnostic server data including product information from the sound signal on the basis of the preamble; and

diagnosing via the diagnostic server the home appliance by analyzing the product information, wherein the detecting of the preamble includes;

extracting a first plurality of preamble candidates of a first time and a second plurality of preamble candidates of a second time; and

matching the plurality of first preamble candidates to the plurality of second preamble candidates on a one to one basis.

7. The diagnostic method according to claim 6, wherein the detecting of the preamble includes:

assigning a predetermined weight to a matched bit according to the one-to-one matching result; and

determining one preamble candidate having a highest sum of assigned weights to be the preamble of the first time.

8. The diagnostic method according to claim 6, wherein, upon detection of the preamble, the detecting of the data includes:

in response to a predetermined preamble size and a predetermined data size, detecting the data according to the predetermined data size starting from an end part of the preamble.